I’m happy to see that you are using technology to keep everyone abreast of situations. You probably already know, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time — communication is the key and I applaud you on your efforts.

My second concern, is the non-existence of education in your core administration team. Education plays a significant role in everything from government to the environment. How can we mend a “tale of two cities” together without first having the truth in education or the lack thereof? I checked with other council administrations in the state of maryland — guess what I found in all of them? Yes… Education.

In closing, when I ran for public office, there was one resounding message that was not only in my message, but in my opponets message and that was of education. Mayor Cohen, it is of no ill intent to say you should have education as one of your transition team committees (The Idea Team if memory serves me correctly) or not. You see, education can be like a smile. It can be given freely under good and bad conditions but the important thing is, once recieved do you make conditions to smile (educate) another? I applaud you for making a difference Mayor Cohen!

B-OWT

I want to second the comment above that these blog comments coupled with the your administration’s efforts to shine a light on the budget crisis facing the city is a welcome development.

I urge you to use all channels available to you to publicize the choices facing the city. You will never get consensus on what is an essential core function, but a greater understanding on the part of the public will hopefully lead to widespread—even if grudging—support for the decisions the mayor and council will have to make.

Thanks for the marked change from the previous administration in openly discussing the money management problems which have gone unaddressed by the Council for far too long. The derailing of the “gravy train” of property tax increases is something many of us feared long ago when we urged you and others to restrain such growth and the temptations to spend. Now at least we have a common reference point for fixing the budget.

A word of caution and a suggestion: previous Councils have called upon citizens to suggest cuts with an almost implicit warning that any lack of effort on their part is justification for a similar lack of effort with regard to cutting from city officials. Ultimately you and the Council members are responsible for handling the budget, although of course I agree that public input makes for a more constructive process.

My suggestion would be to provide as much detail about budgetary items as possible. First, many of us (including myself) are not schooled in such things as government budgets. Second, a common refrain from the Council and the Media is that the Mayor’s Office hides such information (I’ve heard that for more than a decade). Finally, the documentation I have seen posted has seemed woefully inadequate to determine personnel, effectiveness, and needed level of funding.

Just like your recent attempts to address excessive overtime costs, a similar approach to overhauling how budgets are prepared, presented, and discussed would go a long way towards enhancing public trust in City management.

Best Wishes,
Mike Dye
1315 Hawkins